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  • Mubarak, Army, U.S., Israel vs Egyptian People

    [As government forces have attacked peaceful protesters in Tahrir Square, Emad Mekay from Cairo reports] Mubarak is clearly backed by the Americans. He took some moves after speaking with Obama and a visit by a former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner. Mubarak, the army, the Americans and the Israelis are clearly on one side.…

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  • Unrest Spreads to Sinai

    A Bedouin youth casually spreads out a piece of cloth before a police headquarters in Sheikh Zwayyed town in Sinai, the vast desert area to the east of Cairo across the Suez. “I will leave when Mubarak leaves,” he says. [Full piece from Inter Press Service]

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  • Chomsky: Strategic and Economic Objectives, Not Anti-Islamization, Drives U.S. Policy

    [While many are claiming that a central goal of U.S. policy is to minimize influence of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Noam Chomsky contributed this to our blog] It is well-established, including the major scholarly literature, that the U.S. supports democracy if and only if that accords with strategic and economic objectives.  Following…

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  • An Open Letter to President Barack Obama

    ————————————————————————————————————————— [To sign; for recent news releases on Egypt from the Institute for Public Accuracy] Dear President Obama: As political scientists, historians, and researchers in related fields who have studied the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy, we the undersigned believe you have a chance to move beyond rhetoric to support the democratic movement sweeping…

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  • Report from Cairo

    From Alex Ortiz in Cairo: “The army is beginning to come into Cairo … tens of thousands converged in midan al-gala’ coming from three different protest marches. Total communication blackout. Reports of senior police officers ordering their men to stand down and not beat or fire tear gas at protesters in Midan al-gala an hour…

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  • Report on Latest from Cairo

    CAIRO, Egypt [11 p.m. local time] — 1-Some government media figures appear to be joining ranks with the protesters. Mahmoud Saad, a talk show host in the Egyptian state-run TV, has announced that he will no longer appear on TV starting tonight after he came under pressure from top government officials to report “untruths” about…

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  • Police in Cairo Beating up Jounalists

    [From 9:28 a.m. ET]: Police started beating up journalists protesting outside the Press Syndicate in downtown Cairo. They beat up women journalists too who were screaming and crying for help. “Do not club women. Do not club women,” some of the men rushed to the police asking them not to target women. “You’ll make things…

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  • From Alex Ortiz in Cairo

    [The Egyptian government has apparently block Twitter, Facebook (as of Wed. morn U.S. ET) and other internet tools, though apparently some people are able to get around such restrictions. Email from 8:45 a.m. ET:] Downtown Cairo today remains in a state of high alert. There are many security forces and plainsclothed policemen visible on every…

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  • Video from Cairo

    Phone lines are intermittent and Twitter has reportedly been blocked in Egypt. Here is a live video feed: ustream.tv/channel/cairodowntown [update: ustream has been blocked, streaming now intermittently at livestream.com/cairowitness — further update, now at: www.justin.tv/cairowitness] Here is a YouTube video from earlier today:

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  • Ukraine’s Assault on a Free Press

    In Ukraine, where media diversity is often defined by which powerful oligarch controls which TV station, one network, TVi — known for its independent investigative style — is under intense legal pressure, with its owner not part of Ukraine’s power circles. TVi faces a court hearing on Tuesday over a legal claim that the station’s…

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  • Jimmy Carter Began the Free Market Revolution Before Reagan, New Historical Evidence Shows

    “My research has found that Carter was far more conservative than previously recognized. Evidence from newly opened archives show that Carter initiated the deregulation of U.S. industry and finance, reduced the power of organized labor, lowered taxes on business, and imposed austerity measures that intentionally raised unemployment among working people.”

  • Israel Targets Media Again 

    CommonDreams reports: “Israel Launches Massive Bombing Campaign in Lebanon as ‘U,S, Weapons Continue to Flow.'”  Antiwar.com reports: “Netanyahu Considers Ethnic Cleansing Plan for North Gaza.” See Antiwar news with Dave DeCamp. Jeremy Scahill posted: “Media should stop saying Israel is telling people in southern Lebanon to ‘evacuate.’ Israel is engaged in psychological warfare against civilians as…

  • Israel and a Wider War

    “One of the Biden administration’s biggest mistakes over the past few months has been to frame the protracted ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel as only focused on Gaza, without recognizing that all of Iran’s allies in the region, especially Hezbollah and the Houthis, have made clear that they too would stand down once the…

  • Tax-Exempt Nonprofit Electioneering to Boost GOP

    A new Center for Media and Democracy report found that American Majority, a tax-exempt group, trains Republican candidates and party organizations on how to win elections. But the organization’s tax-exempt status prohibits it from such activities. CMD filed complaints with the Internal Revenue Service and the Minnesota attorney general’s office, requesting a thorough investigation into…

  • UN Demands Israel End Occupation

    “Implement the findings of the World Court that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza is entirely unlawful and must be quickly dismantled, Palestinians must be compensated and allowed to return, Israel is practicing apartheid and racial segregation, and all states are obliged to cut off all support and end the occupation.”

  • Humanitarian Groups Demand Pressure to End “Israel’s Systematic Aid Obstruction”

    The Norwegian Refugee Council and 15 other aid organizations just released a statement: “Israel’s siege now blocks 83 percent of food aid reaching Gaza, new data reveals.” They “demand international pressure for an immediate ceasefire, arms embargo, and end to Israel’s systematic aid obstruction.” The groups stated: “New data has revealed the scale of aid…

  • UN to Vote on “Mild Resolution” From Court Rulings on Palestine

    “UN General Assembly, using Uniting for Peace, with a two-thirds of voting members could suspend Israel from participation in its activities as the General Assembly did to the former criminal apartheid regime in South Africa and to the genocidal Yugoslavia; Set up an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel in order to prosecute its highest level…

  • Peace Groups Call on UN to Impose Arms Embargo on Israel

    They call on members states to “embargo arms, oil and tech on Israel to stop settler terrorism and destruction in the West Bank and Israeli military genocide in Gaza.”

  • New Census Data on Poverty

    Census data on poverty rates from 2023 were just released. The data shows the consequences of failing to apply lessons from the pandemic’s anti-poverty measures. Poverty rates remain high relative to the progress made in 2021.

  • Uninsured Numbers Grew Under Trump

    The number of U.S. residents without health insurance rose by 2 million during Donald Trump’s presidency and fell by 3.3 million under Joe Biden’s. That decrease led to the lowest rate of residents without health insurance in U.S. history. Under Trump, meanwhile, 39 states saw increases in their uninsured rates. 

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